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Ratatouille

What a great use of end of the summer tomatoes and zucchini!

Ratatouille
8 servings

6 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 2 cups cubed)
2 zucchini squash, cut into 1/2 slices (about 2 cups)
2 yellow squash, cut into 1/2 inch slices (about 2 cups)
1 large onion, diced
1 red or orange or yellow bell pepper, sliced (poblanos work nicely too!)
8 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms
½ to 1 cup dried wild mushrooms, soaked and sliced
2 or 3 teaspoons Herbes de Provence
1 tied bundle of fresh herbs: 1 rosemary stem, 6 thyme stems, 3 sage leaves, 1 lavender stem, 10 basil leaves, 3 marjoram stems (Optional, use a total of 3 teaspoons herbes de province if you don’t have fresh herbs)
3 or 4 large tomatoes, chopped
1 or 2 8-oz cans of tomato sauce
4 oz. white wine
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 cup grated Parmesan Reggiano

The Herbes de Provence are essential in this dish. If you can get your hands on fresh rosemary, thyme, sage, lavender, basil and marjoram use them – if not, increase the amount of Herbes de Provence to 3 teaspoons.

The first thing you want to do is get all of your ingredients cut up and at hand near the stove.

Heat a large skillet until very hot, add some olive oil and toss in the garlic – cooking until light brown remove the garlic to a large Dutch oven or stock pot. Next, saute the eggplant until lightly browned,

This eggplant is just about ready for the Dutch oven.

Remove the eggplant to the Dutch oven, then brown the squash in batches

Add the squash to the Dutch oven when browned, then saute the red pepper and onions until lightly browned, add more olive oil to the pan as needed for the browning.

I used a mix of orange peppers, poblano peppers and threw in a red cayenne pepper as well. See that Dutch oven in the background? I had to move it all into my big stock pot.

Remove the peppers to the Dutch oven. Saute the fresh and wild mushrooms until lightly browned,

add the tomatoes and tomato sauce. Pour in the white wine and sprinkle in the dried herbs, let simmer for 5 minutes.

Finally, the last of the veggies are in the pan

(If you use fresh herbs, tie them together and bury them in the mix in the dutch oven)

Bundled Herbs

Combine all ingredients in the dutch oven and simmer on medium heat until vegetables are tender, about approximately 20 minutes.

The big stock pot gives a bit more stirring room

If after 10 minutes the mix seems dry, add some more tomato sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan to serve.

Excellent with grilled pork tenderloin or toss with pasta or wait, do both!

Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Alone, the Ratatouille is a nice light supper and a perfect precursor to a cheesecake for desert! Visit wkf.com and check out our new NY style cheesecakes from our bakery friends on The Hill!

Check out these great offerings at the LaSalle & California Garden Center -  There are seasonal mums, and pumpkins and gourds and green and purple kale – even bales of hay – c’mon down, bring your camera!  But, keep in mind, that warty pumpkin has definitely got my name on it!  While you are in the neighborhood, stop into our LaSalle store and check out the Halloween decorations!

Fall Mums

Pumpkins

Big Pumpkin

Warty Pumpkin

Green & Purple Kale

Big Pumpkin

You like fahita meat?  I LOVE fahita meat – crazy for that chewy texture!  My local grocery had some for a change last weekend so I decided to give the Country Bob’s sauce a try out in a steak salad.  Not bad, actually quite good.  Looks good, doesn’t it?  So very pretty in my giant vintage McCoy pottery bowl!

Skirt Steak Salad

First thing to do is get some salad dressing made – here’s what I used

1/3 cup olive oil

3 tbl red wine vinegar

2 tbl freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 small lemon)

1 clove of garlic, minced (of course I used my home grown!)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1 tbl Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce ( I used “spicy” – I like it hot, more about that later in this post)

Wisk all the above ingredients together – and refrigerate until ready to use.

Now to fix up the meat:

Rub a teaspoon of salad dressing onto each side of your skirt steak (1-1/2 lbs) and liberally pepper it, let it sit at room temperature while your coals heat up.

Once those coals are hot, grab your man and give him the tongs and tell him to git to it! (Those are my poblano and habanero peppers growing over on the right)

My Q-King

The skirt steak won’t take long (my Q-King added a couple cube steaks when I wasn’t looking) 4 or 5 minutes on each side – put it on when the coals are really hot, get a nice sear and color to the meat.  Then let the meat rest for about 15 minutes under a foil tent.  While the meat is resting you can make a salad – use crispy lettuces, arugula, whatever veggies you like in a salad. I cut a pear up into mine as well as tossed on some feta cheese (I would have used blue cheese if it was on hand though).  Cut the skirt steak against the grain into bite sized pieces and add to the salad – finally toss with the dressing.  This amount of dressing and meat was a good amount for a large head of romaine and 1-1/2 lb skirt steak – serves 3 or 4.

Now about that hot stuff. You know I grew some peppers this year, and even though it is October 8 today, I am still picking peppers!  I have been grinding them in my handy dandy little Cuisinart mini processor and freezing the peppers in plastic bags – I make a narrow log that I can easily break when it is frozen – I just snap some off for my chili or soup or enchiladas or whatever – tastes great, still as hot as ever and tastes fresh picked!  Wear gloves though when you are messing with those little orange habaneros – I lost a couple layers of skin on part of my left hand last time I did some grinding!

Freezing Ground Peppers

Harvest

If, like me, you have an abundance of Poblano peppers right now, this is a great way to use them up!

Small Poblanos

Large Poblano

We love this recipe around my house. My peppers are small – only 3 inches long – so instead of 4 large poblanos I’ll be using 8 or 10 of my small ones – enough to fill my largest casserole dish.

Some good gravy here!

And in case you are not familiar with poblano chiles, they are not spicy – if you have an aversion to hot stuff, just leave out the jalapeno! I also decided to add some filling into boneless, skinless chicken thighs – good stuff! Made for some great gravy!

Just need to remove the crowns of seeds

Stuffed Poblanos Casserole
The cornmeal takes on the texture of tamale during baking.
Serves 6

1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes (in puree if you can find it!)
1 jalapeno chile (ribs and seeds removed, for less heat), minced
2 small onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves (2 whole, 1 minced)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 bunch chopped cilantro (divided into ½ bunches)
1+ cup shredded pepper Jack cheese
1 teaspoon ground cumin (optional – I HATE CUMIN & LEFT THIS OUT)
1 handful frozen corn kernels
4 large poblano chiles, halved lengthwise (stems left intact), ribs/seeds removed

Preheat oven to 425. Spray a 9-by-13 pan with cooking spray. In a blender, combine tomatoes in puree, jalapeno, half the onions, ½ bunch cilantro and 2 whole garlic cloves; puree. Season with salt. Pour sauce into prepared dish and set aside.

Gravy Beginnings

After blending

In a medium bowl, combine beans, cornmeal, ½ bunch cilantro, ½ cup cheese, remaining onions, minced garlic, optional cumin (yuck), corn kernels, and 3/4 cup water; season with salt and pepper.

Enough for 8 thighs and 8 poblano halves

Dividing evenly, stuff poblano halves with bean mixture; place on top of sauce in baking dish. Sprinkle poblanos with remaining 1/2 cup cheese; cover baking dish tightly with aluminum foil (don’t let the foil rest on the cheese or it will stick to it).

Ready for the oven!

Bake until poblanos are tender, about 45 minutes. Uncover, and continue to cook until sauce is thickened slightly and cheese is browned, 10 to 15 minutes more. Let cool 10 minutes.

Serve with rice and plainly dressed fresh salad.

Garnish is Mexican Oregano blossoms from my garden

Ever heard of Hatch Peppers? My friend Nancy in Tempe brought me a few bags of frozen roasted Hatch Farm peppers – that’s how I came to love Poblanos and had to try my hand at growing them this year.